Elizabeth C. Engle, MD, Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Elizabeth Engle, MD, Professor of Ophthalmology and Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Associate Director of the Ocular Genomics Instutute at Harvard Ophthalmology, has been elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Academy honors exceptional scholars, leaders, artists, and innovators, engaging them in sharing knowledge and addressing challenges facing the world. Past inductees include well-known thought influencers like Benjamin Franklin, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Albert Einstein.

 

Dr. Engle is one of the world’s leading authorities on the genetics of eye movement disorders. She is Associate Director of the Harvard Ophthalmology Ocular Genomics Institute and a Senior Associate in Neurology, Ophthalmology, and Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital.

 

Her groundbreaking research has uncovered the clinical features and genetic causes of rare forms of congenital strabismus and ptosis and led to the definition of a new category of human malformation syndromes, known as congenital cranial dysinnervation disorders. Dr. Engle has identified the genetic mutations in multiple complex strabismus syndromes and demonstrated that these disorders can result from errors in the growth and development of motor neurons and their cranial nerves as they extend from the brainstem to the eye muscles. Her studies of these orphan disorders have dramatically advanced our knowledge not only of these specific disorders, but also of steps critical to human motor neuron and brainstem development.